FRESH off a bruising strike on a camp belonging to the FARC guerrillas earlier this week, Colombia’s army announced an even bigger success today: the killing in a bombing raid of Víctor Julio Suárez Rojas, nicknamed “Mono Jojoy”. Mr Suárez was the group’s military-operations chief, a member of its seven-man ruling secretariat, and the commander of its Eastern Bloc, the strongest unit, with an estimated 4,000-5,000 fighters. Also known as Jorge Briceño, he is believed to have been behind the FARC’s direct offensives against army posts in the early 1990s, a wave of kidnappings of politicians and many of the organisation’s cocaine-trafficking operations.

Since Juan Manuel Santos was sworn in as Colombia’s president last month, the FARC had stepped up attacks on the military as a show of strength to the new government. After Mr Suárez was confirmed killed, Mr Santos, in New York for the UN General Assembly, said the death of a “symbol of terror” was “our welcome to the FARC” and “the most resounding blow against the FARC in its entire history.”

The government’s sustained campaign against the group has pushed them back to remote jungles and mountains, and claimed the lives of several top commanders, including Raúl Reyes, its “foreign minister”, who was killed by a bomb on a camp in Ecuador in 2008. Another leader, Iván Ríos, was murdered by his own bodyguard. And the FARC’s founder, Manuel “Sureshot” Marulanda, died of natural causes in 2008. Mr Suárez was perhaps the most valuable remaining target. “Jojoy was a living legend in the FARC”, says Ariel Ávila, a political analyst. “They respected him highly. This is a blow to the structure and culture of the guerrillas.” The government may reap additional benefits from the strike if it demoralises some of Mr Suárez’s followers and encourages them to demobilise. Mr Suárez has no clear successor.